Richard Esposito: An Obama fairy tale presidency

Tuesday

Oct 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMOct 28, 2008 at 9:37 PM

With one week left, I'm beginning to feel the effect of election fatigue. This occurs when your mind begins shutting out all news related to politics. At this point, I'm tired of the polling, tired of the talking heads and tired of the waiting.

Richard Esposito

With one week left, I'm beginning to feel the effect of election fatigue. This occurs when your mind begins shutting out all news related to politics. At this point, I'm tired of the polling, tired of the talking heads and tired of the waiting.

Soon the counting begins. And regardless of which candidate you support, this long, drawn-out process has taken its toll. It'll likely be the most expensive campaign in history with a most historic outcome.

Barack Obama appears to be the favorite after spending more than $650 million in an effort to "close the deal" with voters. This, along with angst for our sitting president, an economy in shambles and rampant voter registration fraud taking place should be enough to elect the "Change Master."

And then let the change begin.

Americans are accustomed to change. When Congress passed the Patriot Act, we were willing to shed some liberties for the sake of national security. Thank goodness Democrats stood firm in pushing for softer, weaker revisions. They couldn't quite understand why their "world view" was being missed. Under an Obama presidency, we'll finally have an opportunity to hold hands with nations everywhere and sing "We are the World ..."

Shortly after this election ends, a bill will be moving through Congress that eliminates secret balloting for union representation. This opens the door for union intimidation and strong-arming employees that don't see the "value" of joining the brotherhood of a union.

Let the election paybacks begin! Finally after years of being beaten down amidst claims of driving up labor costs, union corruption and political favors, union bosses can rise up again and be seated at the right side (or is it left?) of the Messiah at the table of government.

Middle-class taxpayers fear not. You've been promised no tax increase -- at least for 2009. And if you're one of the 95 percent of taxpayers, or should I say one of the 55 percent of the 95 percent that actually pay taxes, you can rest easy.

You'll witness big corporations like automakers receive government subsidies to manufacture new fuel-efficient cars and continued nationalization of the banking industry. But forget about punishing big oil companies with a windfall profits tax. With free-falling gasoline prices, this new administration just missed another taxing opportunity -- at least for now.

But don't worry, since we won't be drilling offshore, our dependency on imported oil is secure and fuel prices are sure to soar again. Then we can tax our way out of this mess.

The best part of an Obama fairy tale presidency is we get to experience it together. We'll bear witness to a modern-day Robin Hood stealing from the rich to give to the poor.

And working class tax folks will get to see real income distribution at work up close. Watch in awe when those folks paying no taxes get welfare checks far greater than anything imaginable. And who pays for this giveaway? You guessed it -- and our budget deficit balloons almost as fast as our already bloated government.

If you thought George Bush's idea of handing out $300 in stimulus checks was out of touch, wait until you see the free money flying when Obama starts "spreading the wealth" around.

Sitting across our conference room table from then-campaigning Democratic candidate Harold Ford Jr. during his Senate bid, I asked him his thoughts on taxes, specifically the "Fair Tax."

"I think anyone earning $5 million a year should be taxed much higher," Ford told me. "What else would you do with the money anyway? It's more than you or I need to live on."

Five million is a far higher income plateau than Obama's $250,000 family threshold, but it still means the same thing. Both men agree we need to punish anyone with aspiration and ingenuity of earning higher income to reward those that don't. Income redistribution and class warfare has always been a popular political tactic.

Like I said, Americans are accustomed to change and familiar with the same old political promises from both parties. Democrats, however, may soon wrest complete control of all three branches of government and with it unlimited power to do as they please. They won't have President Bush to point fingers of hatred and contempt at, though I suspect he'll be the poster boy for years to come.

With the economy falling into recession and our democracy moving (or is it "changing”?) over to socialism, we'll awake one day and wonder how we lost our democratic way of life.

Then we can do more than just "spread the wealth." We can all "spread the blame."

Richard Esposito is publisher of The Oak Ridger and can be contacted at (865) 220-5510 or by e-mail at richard.esposito@oakridger.com.